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Hentai

Hentai. Perverse animated pornography depicting sexual acts not typical to social norm. Some are passionate about this sometimes beautiful, sometimes hilarious art form. Others are still unaware of what hentai actually is. Let’s explore the history and rise of hentai pornography culture.

Definition

The word “Hentai” in Western culture is widely used to describe anime or manga pornography. However, originating in Japan, the word actually is associated with perverse, abnormal or unique sexual desire or sexual acts. Anything that isn’t male / female vaginal intercourse is hentai. In Japan, hentai is not a genre, but more like the basis of intent. That is to say, it is “non-vanilla” to use Western terms. The word hentai is a combination of ‘hen’ (meaning “weird” or “strange”) and ‘tai’ (meaning “appearance” or “attitude”). Together it is currently translated to mean perversion. It is a shortened or abbreviated phrase of hentai seiyoku or “sexual perversion”.

Erotic manga, or comics, and erotic anime, or cartoons are typically called hentai when there is excessive nudity or obvious sexual lewdness. In their base form, manga and anime are not inherently perverted.

History

Before hentai there was shunga. Shunga, translated, means “picture of spring”. In Japan, spring is often a slang term to mean sex. Shunga were typically erotic drawings, or paintings, that were made on wood blocks or scrolls for nobel leaders. Shunga can be dated back to the Heian period (794 to 1185) and typically depicted nobel scandals and acts between high class figures.

The Dream Of The Fisherman’s Wife

Initially, as aforementioned, shunga showed nobel scandals and told a story. However, over time, shunga started to depict more and more perverse hentai oriented stories. One of the most well known pieces of shunga is titled The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife which tells the tale of a woman making love to two octopi. While heterosexual artwork was the most common, masturbation and homosexual intercourse are featured in some very well known pieces.

Following world war two, Japan started to take increased interest in sexuality and public exhibition of sexual artwork and products. The 1940s saw the earliest versions of erotic manga. Osamu Tezuka, referred to as the “God of Manga”, was one of the first to really define modern manga style. Early manga, however, were more realistically drawn and it wasn’t until Tezuka that the cute and cartoon like appearance was created. An artist by the name of Azuma Hideo is credited for taking the cute and cartoon style and making it erotic. The 1960s and 1970s, with movies, television and eventually VHS, allowed erotic anime take off. It wasn’t until the late 60s and early 70s that erotic anime came to America.

Erotic games came nearly hand in hand with household computers. Initially, there were text based erotic games and dating simulators. However, as processing power and graphics improved, so did the games. Eventually, as with most pornographic material, the acceptance and usage of the internet allowed the industry to flourish. With the recent rise in virtual reality gaming users can now partake in a virtual date or even a first person shooter experience with a cute, sexualized, animated woman.

Censorship

In Japan there is a law, Article 175, that forbids any obscene materials becoming publicized; female and male intercourse and/or pubic hair. Typically there will be blurring, blocking, or use of lighting to censor these acts. However, in 1987, an artist by the name of Toshio Maeda started creating work that utilized tentacles in intercourse with women to circumvent these laws. Widely accepted and desired by the public, this lead to a surge in work depicting robot, demon, monster and alien sex. These odd pieces of work were also some of the first and most successful in Western and American culture.

Public Domain Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Bizarre and Unique

Viewed as gross or obscene, hentai has created a reputation for itself. When most hear the word hentai in Western society, they think of tentacles, hugely breasted women and insane plots. While not all erotic anime and manga feature the bizarre, the more obscene pieces seem to be the most successful in the West.

Sexual fetishes seem to rule westernized hentai. With the freedom of animation, hentai tends to explore some of the extremes of human sexual desire. Vore, hermaphroditism, urine play, tentacles, zoophilia and anything else you can think of has been done in hentai.

Conclusion

Whether it is your cup of tea or not, it’s hard to ignore the growing presence of erotic anime, manga, and cartoons in the global sexual market. Make sure to stay tuned to our site for more hentai and fetish related topics and of course, subscribe to our mailing list.